Legal practice on time: The ethical risk and inefficiency of the six-minute unit

Abstract

Many law firms use time billing for client work with the ‘six-minute unit’ as the standard measure combined with billing ‘targets’ for employed lawyers, sometimes set at more than three times their salary. Time billing is designed to maximize the productivity of lawyers and provide a quantifiable rationale for billing clients, but is often used to control staff and identify ‘non-performers’. This paper critiques time billing and draws on its history and recent research to argue the practice not only motivates inefficiency, it increases the risk of ethical breaches, enables bullying by supervisors, may cause anxiety and mental health issues among employed lawyers, and contributes to the loss of good lawyers especially of women from the profession. The paper presents alternatives to time billing and suggests leading firms will recognise the advantages of adopting them ahead of professional regulators mandating change.